Family History Adventures

A long time ago, Chris' father told me about a relative on his mother's side named Francisco Nazario Urrutia who was from Guipuzcoa, Spain which is in the Basque country. Well, about two years later, Chris gets invited to present his surfing documentary at a film festival in San Sebastian which is in the Guipuzcoa providence in the Basque country in Spain--there are no mistakes. Chris and I both worked hard to try to find information about this man before we left for Spain. We did research on the internet, and Chris searched microfiche records up in Salt Lake. We found some information, but never specifically about Francisco. The day before we left--yes, the day before--Chris was at the BYU bookstore buying gifts to take with us when he heard some people speaking Spanish with an Argentinian accent. In classic Chris Cutri style, it turns out one of the people was the new general authority from Argentina who just so happened to have been just release from being the mission president in the Basque country in Spain. Chris explains about our family history endeavors, and Elder Zivic says that he knows just the person that we must contact to help us when we are there. Everyone exchanges emails, and soon we are in the Basque country communicating with Inaki the most amazing Basque genealogist ever! Inaki tells us that he is free to work with us on Tuesday afternoon which just happens to be the exact day that we plan to be in Bilbao.




We show up at the beautiful church building on Tuesday afternoon and get right to work. The church building is right down the street from the Guggenheim Museum--amazing location! From this picture alone can you see how Chris' gene pool is fitting right in with los Vascos?!







Inaki is a passionate genealogist!! Really, his insight into different paths of research is incredible. He helped us map together all of the information that Chris got from the archives in Salt Lake.







Then, in the middle of our session with Inaki, he jumped up and said that he remembered about this book that we had to go and find. We left the family history center and headed for the bookstore near by that happened to have a whole section on Basque history. We found a giant book called Los Vascos en Argentina, and there in perfect alphabetical order was Francisco Urrutia!!! It was so exciting that I almost died! Really, it was one of those family history miracle stories that you hear about....BUT, the family history miracles of our trip were just beginning.


Here is a picture of our next family history miracle--Chris' cousin Malena! Chris had not seen her for about 15 years, and the last he knew, she was living in Argentina. Well, for the last 3 years or so, she has been living in San Sebastian--yes, the very city where the film festival that brought us to the Basque country was being held. She was flipping through the newspaper when she came across the schedule for the film festival and read the name "Christopher Cutri." She thought, I know that name, I think that is my cousin. She decided to come and see if she was right. She popped her head into the theater where Chris and the other film guys were having a little pre-screening meeting and said, "Christopher Cutri?" Chris thought that she must be from the press wanting an interview or something, but she said, "It's your cousin Malena." It was a great reunion for many reasons. God has a way of bringing people together and the right time in their lives. Meeting Malena was a great example of how families evolve and grow as each individual member matures and lives their life the best that they can. It was modern family history that had so much meaning and brought so much happiness!



Our next family history adventure took us to Barcelona to see the cousin of Chris' father. His name is Elio Cutri--the resemblance between the two of them is striking enough, but for those of you who know what Chris' dad looks like, it is down right creepy how strong those Cutri genes are!! Seriously, they are each different age-progressed photos of each other. Elio was so great to meet. He is a very hard working and kind man. He shared with us amazing knowledge and stories of Chris' grandparents and great grandparents. His stories really helped contextualize personalities and stories that we had heard about.